Electron tomography and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the unique three-dimensional structuresof helical or zigzagged GaN, ZnGa
2O
4, and Zn
2SnO
4 nanowires. The GaN nanowires adopt a helical structure that consists of six equivalent<0
11> growth directions with the axial [0001] direction. We also confirmed that the ZnGa
2O
4 nanosprings have four equivalent <011> growthdirections with the [001] axial direction. The zigzagged Zn
2SnO
4 nanowires consisted of linked rhomb
ohedrons having the side edges matchedto the <110> direction and the [111] axial direction